Our adventures on Islay had ended and the mainland could not be more welcoming. We were treated to the smoothest ferry crossing ever, which means we arrived perfectly on time of the Calmac time schedule. Having boarded the second car and disembarking in that same order, a strange feeling came over us; we kind of missed not having to avoid any potholes and not waving at every car we met. We decided we would keep greeting Dutch cars, easily recognizable by their yellow plates on the front, so Islay would stay with us a little longer. The potholes’ absence we happily took for granted.

Having decided to drive along the western coast as much as possible, we followed the A83 and, from Lochgilphead, the A816 in the direction of Oban. With a slight mistake on the driver’s side of the car, we accidentally drove through Oban instead of around it. We should have taken a picture of the “elderly people crossing” signs, which nobody believes exists. Outside of Oban again, following the A85 until we crossed the “Connel bridge” onto the A828, through Ledaig – the namesake of the peated whisky on the Isle of Mull on our left, we stopped for a quick coffee break at the lovely Ben Lora cafe & Bookshop in Benderloch before continuing our ride north.

The A828, leading us alongside the coastline of Loch Linnhe, we were once again wonder-struck about the beauty of the Scottish west-coast. “West is Best” is not just a catchphrase for the Visit Scotland website, it is – by our understanding and experience, the complete and utter truth. Crossing the Creagan bridge led us into even more splendour, and, if we were not on a too tight self-inflicted schedule to drive 350 kilometres in one day, we should have stopped for some snapshots instead of just snapping shots through the windows of the car. 

Another bridge, one called “Ballachulish bridge”, connected us to the A82 into a, for us, more familiar territory in the direction and through Fort William, until we reached “Spean Bridge” further north. Not just the name of the local bridge, but also the name of the town itself, where the A82 and A86 meet and we had planned to follow the latter further inland, to abandon the roads travelled in previous travels and try something new. 

No longer exactly sure where we were, the big lochs replaced by streams and rivers in an area getting more and more mountainous by the minute, we were at an intersection about to cross yet another bridge or make a choice to turn right following the signs towards “Dalwhinnie distillery” along the A889, General Wade’s Military Road, which we decided to do.

We would however, never arrive at the distillery and fell down a mountain instead… 

Cheers,

Thomas & Ansgar